ST. CLOUD -- With the weather turning, hockey is coming back to the forefront in Minnesota, and the plans for Hockey Day Minnesota 2018 are coming together.

The 12th Annual Hockey Day Minnesota is Saturday, January 20th at Lake George. From the rink to heating and vendors, the committee behind St. Cloud's hosting of the event is hard at work. Mike Petroske is one of the planners for Hockey Day Minnesota.

He says the hockey won't actually be played on Lake George.

"The rink itself will not be on the lake. It's going to be on the shores at Eastman Park, essentially where people sit for the Summertime By George concert. That piece has probably been the biggest piece of the puzzle."

He adds since the rink is a big investment, it will see a lot of use.

"Saturday is the event and we'll do youth games starting Sunday the 21st. We're hoping to run that through Saturday the following week which would be the 27th."

Petroske says they're putting in a lot of work to make sure the day goes well on and off the ice.

"You have to have the refrigerated ice to guarantee the surface. They [the Wild and Fox Sports North] only want to move it off-site in the event of catastrophic weather like a blizzard or conditions like that. As far as keeping people warm, we'll have fire pits and a large tented area that will have heat."

The local teams that will be defending St. Cloud's ice are the men's and women's Huskie Hockey teams. High school teams from St. Cloud Cathedral and St. Cloud Co-op will also face-off.

The full schedule for Hockey Day 2018 looks like this:

  • 10:00 a.m. – St. Cloud Cathedral vs. St. Cloud Coop boys hockey game
  • 1:00 p.m. – SCSU vs. University of Minnesota-Duluth women’s hockey game
  • 4:30 p.m. – Centennial vs. Moorhead boys hockey game
  • 5:00 p.m. – SCSU vs. Minnesota State-Mankato men’s hockey game
  • 8:00 p.m. – Wild vs. Tampa Bay NHL game

St. Cloud officials and community leaders have been working on bringing Hockey Day Minnesota to St. Cloud for the past five years.

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